Part 2 (1/2)
Made in Ohio about 1840. Beautifully quilted in medallions and pineapples of original design. Colors: red, pink, and green]
Applique, or applied work, has never been used in France to the same extent as in England, even though the French name ”applique” is more frequently used than any other. However, there is one striking example of applique work, of Rhenish or French origin, now hanging in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This realistic patchwork represents a fight between an armoured knight mounted on a high-stepping white horse and a ferocious dragon. The designs are arranged in a fas.h.i.+on similar to the blocks in a modern quilt, and depict several scenes showing the progress of the combat. There is also a border covered closely with figures of monks, knights, and ladies.
An extract from ”First Steps in Collecting,” by Grace M. Vallois, gives an interesting glimpse of an old French attic. An object of great interest to us is the old, unfinished quilt she discovered there: ”A rummaging expedition in a French _grenier_ yields more treasures than one taken in an English lumber room. The French are more conservative; they dislike change and never throw away anything.
Among valuable antiques found in the _grenier_ of a Louis XV house in the Pyrenees were some rare curtains of white linen ornamented with designs cut from beautiful old chintz; the edges of the applied designs were covered with tightly twisted cotton cord. Also, in the same room, in a drawer of an old chestnut-wood bureau, was found an unfinished bed quilt very curiously worked. It was of linen with a filling of rather soft cotton cord about an eighth of an inch wide.
These cords were held in place by rows of minute st.i.tching of white silk, making the bedcover almost solid needlework. Besides the quilting there were at rather wide intervals conventional flowers in peac.o.c.k shades of blue and green silk executed in chain st.i.tch. When found, the needle was still sticking in one of the flowers, and many were traced ready for work. The traced lines appear to have been made with India ink and were very clear and delicate. What caused the abrupt interruption of the old quilt no one can tell. It is possible that the great terror of 1793 caused the patient maker to flee from her unfinished task.”
In the countries of northern Europe there is scarcely any record concerning the art of quilting and patchwork, and little can be said beyond the fact that both existed in some form or other. In Germany the quilt so familiar to us is practically unknown. In the past applique was very little used, except as cut work, or _opus consutum_, in blazonments and heraldic devices. The thick feather beds of medieval Germany were covered with various kinds of thick comforts filled with either wool or feathers, and sometimes spa.r.s.ely quilted.
The only decoration of the comfort consisted of a band of ornamental work, ten to twenty inches wide, usually worked in cross-st.i.tch design with brightly coloured yarns. These bands were generally loose upon the comfort, one edge being held down by the pillow, but occasionally they were sewed to the edge of the bedcover.
In a work on arts and crafts relating to their presence in Sweden, it is written that ”woven hangings were used to decorate the timbered walls of the halls of the vikings. They were hung over the temples, and they decorated the timber sepulchres of the dead. When the timbered grave of the Danish queen, Fyra Danabode, who died about 950, was opened, remains of woven woollen cloth were found.” As far back as Swedish records go it can be shown that Swedish women wove and sewed figured material.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FINE EXAMPLE OF OLD GERMAN APPLIQUe
Now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York]
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOUBLE X
A modern quilt. Colours: blue and white]
On account of the cold there is urgent need of wall hangings, and they are used extensively throughout Scandinavia. On festive occasions the stiff, cold appearance of Swedish peasants' homes is transformed by the gay wall coverings to one of hospitality and warmth. The hangings used are made of linen, either painted or embroidered in bright colours. The painted ones are especially interesting as they depict many historical scenes. Allegorical and religious subjects are also used to decorate many of these linen hangings. The Swedes are very patriotic, and on their wall hangings show all the saints clad in typical Swedish costumes. The apostles wear Swedish jack boots, loose collars, and pea jackets; and Joseph, as governor of Egypt, is shown wearing a three-cornered hat and smoking a pipe.
There is a valuable collection of Swedish needlework in the Northern Museum of Stockholm, dating from 1639 to the nineteenth century. Among this collection there are a few small pieces of applied work: some cus.h.i.+ons, glove gauntlets, and a woman's handbag. It is possible that patchwork was used more extensively than the museum's display would indicate, but since large pieces are very rarely found, patchwork was evidently not held in the same esteem as embroidery and painting.
CHAPTER III
PATCHWORK AND QUILTING IN OLD ENGLAND
In searching for the beginning of needlework in England, the first authentic date revealed relating directly to this subject is 709, when the Bishop of Sherborne writes of the skill Englishwomen had attained at that time in the use of the needle. Preserved in various museums are some examples of Anglo-Saxon embroidery of uncertain date, that are known to have been made before the Bishop of Sherborne's time. Mention should also be made of the wonderful Bayeux Tapestry. This ancient piece is 227 feet long and twenty inches wide, and is of great historical interest, in that it ill.u.s.trates events of English history from the accession of Edward the Confessor to the English defeat at Hastings by the Normans in 1066. There is some doubt as to whether this tapestry, which has the characteristic of typical applique--namely, the absence of shading--is actually of English workmans.h.i.+p, but it is unquestionably of Anglo-Saxon origin. It was first hung in Bayeux Cathedral in 1476.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PUSS-IN-THE-CORNER
A beautifully quilted design made about 1855. Colours: a dull green calico having small red flowers and white]
[Ill.u.s.tration: TEA LEAVES
A quaint old design combining a pieced block with an applied leaf stem. Colours: green and white]
It is a generally accepted fact that applique and embroidery are closely related and of about equal age, although relatively few examples of the former are preserved in collections of needlework. One of the oldest authentic bits of applique is at Stonyhurst College. It represents a knight clad in full armour, mounted on a spirited galloping horse. The horse is covered with an elaborately wrought blanket and has an imposing ornament on his head. The knight wears a headdress of design similar to that of the horse and, with arm uplifted and sword drawn, appears about to attack a foe. This work is well done, and the pose of both man and horse shows spirit. It is said to have been made during the thirteenth century. Preserved to us from this same period is the tattered fragment of a coat worn by Edward, the Black Prince, and which now hangs over his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral. With it are the helmet and gauntlets he wore and the s.h.i.+eld he carried. The coat is of a red and blue velvet, now sadly faded, applied to a calico background and closely quilted. It is too elaborate to have been made to wear under his armour, and was probably worn during state functions where armour was not required, although it was then customary to wear thickly padded and quilted coats and hoods in order to ease the weight of the heavy and unyielding coats of mail.
Much of the best needlework in England at this early period was for the church. Neither labour nor expense was spared to make the magnificent decorations used in the old cathedrals. Aside from the linens, silks, and velvets used in this construction, much gold and silver bullion was wrought into the elaborate altar hangings, altar fronts, and ecclesiastical vestments. In their ornamentation applied work was freely used, especially on the large hangings draped over the altar.
It was during the earliest period that the Latin name _opus consutum_ was commonly used to designate patchwork. Chain st.i.tch also was much used on early English embroidery; to such an extent that it is now of great service as an identification mark to fix the dates of medieval needlework. Chain st.i.tch was dignified by the Latin name _opus anglicanum_. Only the most elaborate and richest of embroideries have been preserved; the reason being that much of the work was done with silver and gold threads which were in reality fine wires of these precious metals. Being exceedingly costly, they were given unusual care, many being kept with the royal plate and jewels. One specimen made in 905 by Aelfled, the queen of Edward, the Elder, is now treasured in Durham Cathedral. It is described as being ”of almost solid gold thread, so exquisitely embroidered that it resembles a fine illuminated ma.n.u.script,” and is indescribably beautiful. In many instances the fabrics of these old embroideries have partly fallen away, leaving only frail fragments of the original material held together by the lasting threads of gold and silver.
The great amount of precious metals used in making the richest garments and hangings sometimes made them objects to be desired by avaricious invaders. In an inventory of the contents of Cardinal Wolsey's great palace at Hampton Court there are mentioned, among many other rare specimens of needlework of that period, ”230 bed hangings of English embroidery.” None of them is now in existence, and it is supposed that they were torn apart in order to fill the coffers of some vandal who preferred the metal in them to their beauty as hangings.
Among the sumptuous furnis.h.i.+ngs belonging to the Tudor period, applied work held a prominent place. Vast s.p.a.ces of cold palace walls were covered by great wall hangings, archways were screened, and every bed was enclosed with curtains made of stoutly woven material, usually more or less ornamented. This was before the advent of French tapestry, which later supplanted the English applique wall draperies.